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Being the Central Truth of the 
Christian Religion 


as held by 


THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 
(COMMONLY CALLED QUAKERS) 


“IT am the Light of the world; if any man follow 
after me he shall not walk in darkness, but shall have 


the light of life.” —Jesus Christ. 


“The Quaker has but one word,—the Inner Light;— 
the voice of God in the soul.” —George Bancroft. 


“The constant standard of truth and goodness is 
God in the conscience, and liberty of conscience is 
therefore the most sacred right, and the only avenue 
to religion.” —Wiéilliam Penn. 


By Isaac ROBERTS 





Published by 
FELLOWSHIP PRESS SERVICE 





New York, N. Y. 


oP Fourth Ave. 


Copyright 1925 
By Isaac ROBERTS 


TO 
MY FRIEND 

Dr. RUFUS M. JONES 
IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

OF FULLER LIGHT 
RECEIVED THROUGH HIS MESSAGES 

OF HELP AND INSPIRATION 
THIS LITTLE BOOK 
IS DEDICATED, 


COPY OF A LETTER 
from 


JOHN G. WHITTIER 


to the President of the Young Friends’ As- 
sociation, Philadelphia. 


Amesbury, 12th. Mo. 8th. 1890. 


“Dear Friend; 


I like the idea of your Association. I 
think it would be well for our young 
Friends of the different branches who bear 
the name of. “Friends” to form similar so- 
cieties. We need to direct our attention to 
the one central truth upon which Quaker- 
ism rests,—the Divine Immanence,—the In- 
speaking Word. Resting on this vital doc- 
trine, as it was proclaimed by Fox and 
Penn, and Barclay and Penington, we could 
forget all our dissensions, and be virtually 
once more a united people. 


(signed )—JoHN G. WHITTIER. 


inst etek PREFACE. : 


As will be seen, this booklet is a compila- 
tion of the convictions of the early Friends 
and some of their recent followers, as stated 
by themselves, with regard to the leading prin- 
ciple of truth for which they have always 
stood. Part I: consists of extracts from the 
writings of “Fox and Penn, of Barclay and 
Penington” and some modern Friends, and is 
an attempt to carry out the advice of John G. 
Whittier, that we should concentrate our at- 
tention upon the “one Central Truth upon 
which Quakerism rests,—the Divine Imma- 
nence,—the Inspeaking Word.” 


The extracts from the writings of modern 
Friends show that this great truth is still 
firmly held by Friends as the “Central Truth 
upon which Quakerism rests,” and also re- 
veal the continuity and persistence of this vital 


and sufficient principle of truth as ‘“‘God’s gift 
for man’s salvation.” 


In Part II quotations from the Old and 
New Testaments are presented, showing how 
fully this truth of God’s presence with His 
children is declared by the Scriptures of 
Truth. To these are added quotations from 
early and modern Friends and other writers, 
showing that this ancient truth is still held by 
Friends, as well as by many not connected 
with that Religious Society. 


Friends have never claimed any monopoly . 
of this great Central Truth of Christianity; 
—they have simply emphasized it more than 
others, and have consistently held it as the 
great vital, sufficient, and saving truth of the 
Religion they profess. Indeed so far have 
they been from monopolizing it, that they 
have always insisted that it was a universal 
gift of our Heavenly Father to all His chil- 
dren, however little some of them might know 
or acknowledge this. 


None welcome more than do Friends the 
appearance of books bearing witness to this 


Central Truth, especially when they come 
from those connected with other branches of 
the Christian Church. ‘They are always glad 
to acknowledge the value of such books as 
“The Inward Light” by Amory H. Bradford, 
of this country, and “The Indwelling Spirit,” 
by W. T. Davison of England. From both 
of these numerous quotations are made in 


Part II. 


It may be noticed that in a few instances 
statements by George Fox and some others of 
the early Friends, presented in Part I, are re- 
peated in Part II. Where this happens, it 
has been done either to exhibit the continuity 
of the same thought over several centuries, or 
to show the close resemblance of the expres- 
sion of the truth by two or more writers. 
Charles H. Spurgeon, the great English 
preacher, is reported to have said that in 
George Fox’s Journal there were “nuggets of 
pure gold.” It is hoped that the repeated 
showing of some of these “nuggets of pure 
gold” in a new setting may be pardoned. 


be | 


NOTE. 


The quotations from the Old and the New 
Testaments presented in Part Two are taken 
from the Authorized Version of 1611, as that 
was the Bible known to George Fox and the 
early Friends,—and is also the one referred 
to by Whittier as ‘“‘the book our mothers read.” 


The extracts made from the writings of Dr. 
Rufus M. Jones are taken chiefly from his 
“The Inner Life,’ (published by The Mac- 
millan Co. 1916); “The World Within,” 
(published by the Macmillan Co. 1918) ; and 
“The Social Law in the Spiritual World,” 
(published by the John C. Winston Co. 
1904). My acknowledgments are due to Dr. 
Jones, and to his Publishers for their kind 
permission to quote from his writings. 


The quotations credited to Samuel M. Jan- 
ney are taken from his “Summary of Christian 
Doctrine,’—an invaluable little book for all 
who are interested in the Principles of the So- 
ciety of Friends. 


Those credited to George Bancroft are from 
his “History of the United States,’—Vol. I; 
chapter 16. 


Those credited to Amory H. Bradford are 
taken from his “The Inward Light,” (pub- 
lished by Thos. Y. Crowell and Co., New 
York City, 1905); while those from W. T. 
Davison are from his book entitled ‘“The In- 
dwelling Spirit,” (published by Hodder and 
Stoughton; New York and London; 1911.) 


THE CENTRAL TRUTH 
Part I. 


“Now the Lord God hath opened to me by 
His invisible power how that every man was 
enlightened by the divine Light of Christ ;— 
I saw it shine through all;—and that they 
that believed in it came out of condemnation, 
and came to the Light of Life, and became the 
children of it.’—George Fox. 


The early Friends bore witness to the 
Truth as they saw the Truth in at least three 
ways ;—by the spoken word; by the written 
word; and by their daily lives. Doubtless the 
last was the most powerful way of bearing 
witness, but they were effective preachers and 
teachers of the Truth by speech and by their 
writings. Such books as George Fox’s “Jour- 
nal”; Robert Barclay’s “Apology for the True 
Christian Divinity”; and William Penn’s “No 


10 


Cross No Crown,” bore ample witness to the 
great truths that had been revealed to them, 
presented their message to the men and women 
of their own day, and are invaluable to us as 
clear and most convincing presentations of the 
Central Truth of the Christian Religion as 
they, and those who have shared their faith, 
have seen it. 


The early pages of the Journal of George 
Fox give an account of his earnest, although 
for some time unsuccessful, search for Truth. 
It is worthy of note that he found little or no 
help from men; the answer that finally set his 
soul at peace came to him as a direct revela- 
tion from his Heavenly Father. He came 
to know the great Truth which he afterward 
proclaimed to all as a personal experience, be- 
fore he had read of it in the Scriptures of 
Truth. Later he found ample evidence of it 
in them, but it was the clear and direct re- 
velation to his own soul that most impressed 
him, as it would any man or woman of our 
own time. 


11 


' After recording his early experiences in the 
beginning of his “Journal” ae Fox con- 
tinues as follows: 


“And when all my hopes in them and in 
all men was gone, so that I had nothing 
outwardly to help me, nor could tell what 
to do, then, O then, I heard a voice which 
said: ‘“There is one, even Christ Jesus, that 
can speak to thy condition; and, when I 
heard it, my heart did leap for joy. Then 
the Lord did let me see why there was none 
on earth that could speak to my condition, 
namely, that I might give Him all the glory. 
For all are concluded under sin and shut up 
in unbelief, as I had been, that Jesus Christ 
might have the pre-eminence, who enlight- 
ens, and gives grace and faith and power.” 


Referring to this experience as coming be- 
fore he had knowledge of the evidence in the 
Scriptures relating to it, he continues; 


“And this I knew experimentally. My 
desires after the Lord grew stronger, and 


12 


zeal in the pure knowledge of God and of 
Christ alone, without the help of any man, 
book, or writing. For though I read the 
Scriptures that spake of Christ and of God, 
yet I knew Him not, but by revelation, as 
He who hath the key did open, and as the 
Father of Life drew me to His Son by His 
Spirit.” 


In the year 1652, when but 28 years of age, 
he wrote a general epistle to all Friends, from 
which the following opening sentences are 
quoted as presenting in a few words the heart 
of his message, both to the people of his own 
day and to mankind in all ages:— 


“To all my dear friends and brethren 
everywhere; 


He that hath the Son of God hath life, 
and all that have not the Son of God have 
not Life. ‘The Son of God is He that sets 
free from sin, and is come to deface and 
destroy the image of the devil, and to re- 
new us up into the image of God, and to 


lead us into all righteousness. Blessed be 
the glorious God, who hath sent His Son 
into the world to take away the sins of the 
world.” 


The pages of his “Journal,” which records 
his service and suffering for the Truth, bear 
ample witness to his conviction of the sufh- 
ciency of the “Christ Within,’ as the re- 
deemer, strengthener, and comforter of all 
who came to the knowledge of this Divine 
Light in their souls, and endeavored to follow 
it. His appeals to “that of God within you” 
must have had great power with his hearers, 
as relating them directly to their Heavenly 
Father, and was in the strongest possible con- 
trast with the teaching, more prevalent then, 
perhaps, than now, that man was of necessity 
the “child of the devil.” In the struggle for 
supremacy over the souls of men, he insisted 
upon giving His Heavenly Father at least an 
equal chance with the powers of wickedness. 
This was undoubtedly one of the sources of 
the power he exercised over the hearts of 
men. 


Among the contemporaries of George Fox 
none has been so well-known to those who 
have followed him, and none has so profoundly 
affected the history of mankind for good, as 
the Founder of the great Commonwealth 
which bears his name,—William Penn. Com- 
ing into possession of a great empire, he used 
it not for his own aggrandizement, but dedi- 
cated it to a “Holy Experiment” for the bet- 
terment of his fellow-men,—an experiment 
that has been largely crowned with successful 
accomplishment. 


No one understood more fully than did he 
just what the principles of the early Friends 
were, and what these might do for the im- 
provement of human society. “The ameliora- 
tion in the laws which he gave the settlers of 
his new commonwealth, as compared with the 
laws of the country which they left, amply 
shows this; and still further witness to the 
greatness of his vision and the goodness of his 
heart is borne by the broad toleration which 
he insisted upon for those of other faiths than 
his own. 


15 


In his account of “The Rise and Progress 
of the People called Quakers,” in defining the 
distinguishing principles of the Friends, he 
says ;— 


‘Their characteristic or main distinguish-, 
ing point or principle is; The Light of 
Christ. within, as God’s Gift for man’s sal- 
vation. ‘This, I say, is as the root of the 
goodly tree of doctrines that grew and 
branched. out from it.” 


Referring to the preaching and writings of 
the early Friends, he says ;— 


“They directed people to a principle in 
themselves, though not of themselves, by 
which all that they asserted, preached, and 
exhorted others to, might be wrought in 
them, and known to them, through experi- 
ence, to be true.” | 


The close resemblance of this statement of 
William Penn to the later well-known utter- 
ance of the great English scholar and critic, 
Matthew Arnold, in which he referred. to 


“the enduring Power, not ourselves, that 
makes for righteousness,”—(in his ‘Literature 
and Dogma,”) is worthy of note. One can- 
not help wondering whether the great teacher 
of the nineteenth century had read the words 
of the reformer and statesman of the seven- 
teenth, and had unconsciously repeated the 
thought of his predecessor. 


The most scholarly book that was written 
by any of the early Friends, and which still 
brings a living and convincing message to the 
souls of men, is Robert Barclay’s “Apology 
for the True Christian Divinity.” First pub- 
lished in Latin, it was no doubt intended for 
the scholars and theologians of that day; but, 
translated into English, it has come down to 
us, and has been as a store-house of Truth 
for the succeeding generations. A few cita- 
tions from this great work will serve to show 
why it has always been so precious in the sight 
of the convinced Friend. 


In introducing the 2nd Proposition of his 
“Apology,” treating of “Immediate Revela- 
tion,’ Barclay says; 


17 


“For the better understanding then of 
this Proposition we do distinguish between 
the certain knowledge of God, and the un- 
certain; betwixt the spiritual knowledge and 
the literal; between the saving heart-knowl- 
edge, and soaring, airy head-knowledge. 
The last, we confess, may be in divers ways 
obtained; but the first, by no other way 
than the inward, immediate manifestation 
and revelation of God’s Spirit,—shining in 
and upon the heart, enlightening and open- 
ing the understanding.” 


And again, he says ;— 


“This Divine Revelation and Inward II- 
lumination is that which is evident and 
clear of itself, forcing by its own evidence 
and clearness the well disposed understand- 
ing to assent.” 


Later, in the same Proposition, he says; 


‘The question is not what may be pro- 
fitable or helpful, but aie is absolutely 
necessary?” 


1é 


““The sum, then, of what is said amounts 
to this; That where the true inward knowl- 
edge of God is, through the revelation of 
His Spirit, there is all; neither is there an 
absolute necessity of any other.” 


Some of the quotations from other writers 
made by Barclay in support of this Second 
Proposition, on “Immediate Revelation,” are 
most forcible. Thus he quotes both from the 
Old and the New ‘Testament in one para- 
graph, as follows ;— 


“The nature of the New Covenant is yet 
more amply expressed in Jeremiah, 31-33, 
which is again repeated and re-asserted by 
the Apostle in Hebrews, 8th, chapter, 10- 
11, in these words ;— 


“For this is the covenant that I will 
make with the House of Israel, after those 
days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws 
into their minds, and write them in their 
hearts ,and I will be to them a God, and 
they shall be to me a people ;—. 


19 


“And they shall not teach every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, say- 
ing, Know the Lord; for they shall all 


know me, from the least to the greatest.” 


In support of this proposition he also quotes 
from several of the early Church Fathers. 
From Augustine he quotes the following; 


“Tt is the inward Master that teacheth, 
it is Christ that teacheth, it is Inspiration 
that teacheth. Where this inspiration and 
Unction is wanting, it is in vain that words 
from without are beaten in.” 


And again from Augustine he quotes as 
follows; 


“For He that created us, and redeemed 
us, and called us by faith, and dwelleth in 
us by His Spirit, unless He speaketh to 
you inwardly, it is needless for us to cry 
out.” 


He also quotes from Gregory the Great, 
as follows; 


20 


“Gregory the Great, upon these words, 
—‘He shall teach you all things,’—saith; 
—‘“That unless the same Spirit sit upon the 
heart of the hearer, in vain is the discourse 
of the Doctor.—Let no man therefore 
ascribe unto the man that teacheth, what he 
understands from the mouth of him that 
speaketh, for unless He that teacheth be 
within, the tongue of the Doctor that is 
without, laboureth in vain.” 


‘Then, coming down to a later period, he 
also quotes from Luther, (from his book ad- 
dressed to the Nobility of Germany) ,—as fol- 
lows; 


“This is certain that no man can make 
himself a Doctor of the Holy Scriptures, 
but the Holy Spirit alone”; 


and again he quotes from him; 
“No man can rightly understand God, or 


the word of God, unless he immediately re- 
ceive it from the Holy Spirit; neither can 


21 


any one receive it from the Holy Spirit, ex- 
cept he find it by experience in himself; and 
in this experience the Holy Spirit teacheth 
as in His proper school,—out of which 
school nothing is taught but mere talk.” 


He also quotes from Luther’s friend, Philip 
Melancthon, as follows; (from his Annota- 
tions upon the 6th. chapter of John) ; 


“Who hear only an outward and bodily 
voice, hear the creature; but God is a 
Spirit, and is neither discernible, nor known, 
nor heard, but by the Spirit; and therefore 
to hear the Voice of God, to see God, is to 
know and hear the Spirit.” 


And again from the same writer, he quotes 
as follows; 


“Yea, all those who apply themselves ef- 
fectually to Christianity, and are not sat- 
isfied until they have found its effectual 
work upon their hearts redeeming them 
from sin, do feel that no knowledge effectu- 
ally prevails to the producing of this, but 


that which proceeds from the warm influ- 
ence of God’s Spirit upon the heart, and 
from the comfortable shining of His Light 
upon: their understanding.” 


Barclay refers to a certain Dr. Smith of 
Cambridge, whom he terms “ a late modern 
Author,’ and quotes from his Select ‘‘Dis- 
courses” the following ;— 


“To seek our Divinity merely among 
books and writings, is to seek the Living 
among the dead; we do but in vain many 
times seek God in these, where His truth is 
too often not so much enshrined as en- 
tombed. * * * Seek God within thine 
own soul; He is best discerned by an intel- 
lectual touch of Him. * * * It profits 
little to know Christ himself after the flesh; 
but he gives his Spirit to good men, that 
searcheth the deep things of God.” 


And again from the same writer he quotes, 
as follows; 


23 


“It is but thin, airy knowledge that is 
got by mere speculation, which is ushered 
in by syllogism and demonstrations ;—but 
that which springs forth from true Good- 
ness, it brings such a Divine Light to the 
soul, as is more clear and convincing than 
any demonstration.” 


Barclay also quotes from John Calvin’s “In- 
stitutes; Chapter 2” as follows; 


“Paul accoxnts those the Sons of God 
who are actuated by the Spirit of God; but 
these “(the opponents of Calvin)” will 
have the children of God actuated by their 
own spirits, without the Spirit of God. He 
will have us call God Father, the Spirit dic- 
tating that term unto us, which only can 
witness to our spirits that we are the Sons 
of God. ‘These, though they cease not to 
call upon God, do nevertheless demit (dis- 
miss) the Spirit, by whose guiding He is 
rightly to be called upon. He denies them 
to be the Sons of God, or the servants of 
Christ, who are not led by His Spirit; but 


24 


these feign a Christianity that needs not the 
Spirit of Christ.” 


In the Third Proposition of the “Apology,” 
referring to the universality of the Light of 
Christ, he says; 


“God hath sent us forth to preach this 
everlasting Gospel to all; Christ nigh to all; 
the Light in all; the Seed sown in the 
hearts of all; that men may come and apply 
their minds to It.” 


Of all the early Friends, there was none, 
perhaps, of a more deeply spiritual nature than 
Isaac Penington. A few years older than 
George Fox, he was a man of mature mind 
when he joined the despised Quakers in 1658. 
For a long time he shared the popular scorn 
of the early Friends, but finally accepted an 
invitation to attend one of their meetings, 
and there was led to accept the truth as they 
saw it. “The following brief extract from his 
writings will show the spiritual quality of his 
mind, and bear witness to the great truth, 


25 


which he was convinced he had found in the 


faith of Friends; 


“But some may desire to know what I 
have at last met with. I answer,” I have 
met with the Seed.*” Understand that 
word, and thou wilt be satisfied and in- 
quire no further. * * * J have met with 
the true knowledge, the knowledge of life, 
the living knowledge, the knowledge which 
is life; and this hath had the true virtue in 
it, which my soul hath rejoiced in, in the 
presence of the Lord. I have met with the 
seed’s Father, and in the seed I have felt 
him my Father; there I have read His na- 
ture, His love, His compassions, His ten- 
derness, which have melted, overcome and 
changed my heart before Him. 


“I have met with the seed’s faith, which 
hath done and doth that which the faith 


of man can never do. * * * JT have met 


* “By ‘Seed’ the early Friends meant a part of the 
Divine Nature, capable of growth, which was brought 
into the heart of man.’’—From “Christian Life, Faith 
and Thought in the Society of Friends.” 


26 


with the true peace, the true righteousness, 
the true holiness, the true rest of the soul, 
the everlasting habitation which the re- 
deemed. dwell in. * * * 


“Everything in the Kingdom, every spir- 
itual thing, refers to Christ and centers in 
Him. His nature, His virtue, His pres- 
ence, His power, makes up all. Indeed He 
is all in all to a believer, only variously 
manifested and opened in the heart by the 
Spirits | 


The extracts presented above from the 
writings of some of the leaders among the 
early Friends will no doubt seem to be con- 
clusive as to the great Central Truth of 
Christianity as it had been revealed to them, 
both in their experience and in the Scriptures. 
To their testimony may be added the voice of 
History. 

There has probably never been a finer 
tribute offered to any Religious Society by 
one not connected with it, than was freely 
offered to the early Friends by our greatest 


27 


American historian, George Bancroft. In the 
first volume of his “History of the United 
States,” in dealing with the settlement of New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania, he found it neces- 
sary to consider the principles of the Friends. 
What he says shows that he must have con- 
sulted original authorities, and he no doubt 
turned to the writers from whom quotations 
have been presented above. 


His conclusions are interesting and valu- 
able. He gave the subject not only a thorough 
but a sympathetic treatment. Referring to 
the cardinal principle of the Friends, he says; 


“The Quaker has but one word,—the In- 
ner Light,—the Voice of God in the soul. 
That Light is a reality, and therefore in 
its freedom the highest revelation of truth: 
it is kindred with the Spirit of God, and 
therefore merits dominion as the guide to 
virtue: it shines in every man’s breast, and 
therefore joins the whole human race in the 
unity of equal rights.” 


28 


He quotes from William Penn the state- 
ment, given above, as to the “main distinguish- 
ing principle” of the Friends, and adds; 


“The idea of God with us, the incarna- 
tion of the Spirit, the union of Deity with 
humanity, was to the Quaker the dearest 
and the most sublime symbol of man’s en- 
franchisement.” 


And again, referring to the practical value 
of this principle of truth to character and the 
conduct of life, he says ;— 


“The Inner Light is to the Quaker not 
only the revelation of truth, but the guide 
of life and the oracle of duty.” 


Many other quotations might be made from 
the writings of the early Friends, showing 
what they regarded as the “main distinguish- 
ing principle” of their religion. But enough 
has been cited from those mentioned by Whit- 
tier, and we can pass to the consideration of 
the question as to whether this cardinal teach- 


29 


ing of the Society of Friends is still held as 
the leading principle upon which this Religious 
Society rests. Fortunately this question can 
be readily answered from recent writers 
among Friends, both in this country and in 
England. As four of the early Friends have 
been quoted from, let us choose four of the 
modern Friends to quote from,—two English 
and two American Friends. 


Among the Friends of our day few have 
been better known by their writings than 
Caroline Stephen, one of our English Friends. 
Becoming a Friend by convincement, and 
finding the needs of her spirit best met by the 
simple teaching and plain methods of worship 
of the Society of Friends, she was able to pre- 
sent the views of present-day Friends in clear 
and convincing terms. Referring to the fun- 
damental principle of the Society, she says in 
her “Quaker Strongholds,’—(in the chapter 
on ““The Inner Light,”) ;— 


“The one corner-stone of belief upon 
which the Society of Friends is built is the 


30 


conviction that God does indeed commun- 
icate with each one of the spirits He has 
made, in a direct and living inbreathing of 
some measure of His own life; that He 
never leaves Himself without a witness in 
the heart as well as in the surroundings of 
man; that the measure of light, life or grace 
thus given increases by obedience:” 


and again, in the same chapter, she says; 


“Nothing, I believe, can really teach us 
the nature and meaning of inspiration but 
the personal experience of it. That we all 
may have such experience, if we will but 
attend to the Divine influences in our own 
hearts, is the cardinal doctrine of Quaker- 
ism.” 

Of all modern Friends none has been more 
widely known or more greatly loved than our 
Quaker poet, John G. Whittier,—the poet of 
the Spirit. By his consistent Christian life, 
devoted to great Reform movements, as well 
as by his poems that have carried comfort 


31 


and strength to men and women of every 
school of faith, he has endeared himself to 
the best in character and in life for all time. 
In 1890, only a short time before his death, 
he wrote the following letter to the President 
of the Young Friends’ Association of Phila- 
delphia, in reply to a letter setting forth the 
objects of that Association ; 


Amesbury, 12th, Mo. 8th, 1890. 
“Dear Friend; 


I like the idea of your Association. I 
think it would be well for our young 
Friends of the different branches who bear 
the name of “Friends” to form similar so- 
cieties. We need to direct our attention 
to the one central truth upon which Quak- 
erism rests,—the Divine Immanence,—the 
inspeaking Word. Resting on this vital 
doctrine, as it was proclaimed by Fox and 
Penn, and Barclay, and Penington, we 
could forget all our dissensions, and be 
virtually once more a united people. 


(signed) —JoHN G. WHITTIER. 


32 


And in a published letter, written at an 
earlier date than the above, he wrote as fol- 
lows ;— 


“After a kindly and careful survey of 
them all,’’ (the various branches of the 
Christian Church) “I turn to my own So- 
ciety, thankful to the Divine Providence 
which placed me where I am; and with an 
unshaken faith in the one distinctive doc- 
trine of Quakerism,—the Light Within,” 
—the Immanence of the Divine Spirit in 
Christianity.” 


In his poems he refers again and again to 
this principle of the Religion that was so dear 
to him. In one poem alone, from which it is 
said that five selections have been made for 
hymns that are used by various denominations, 
—in his poem, ‘Our Master,” repeated refer- 
ence to this cardinal teaching of Quakerism is 
made, as the following quotations will show; 


“In joy of inward peace, or sense 
Of sorrow over sin, 
He is His own best evidence,— 
His witness is within. 
* * * * 


But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 
A present help is He; 

And faith has still its Olivet, 
And love its Galilee. 


€ s & it _ 


Alone, O Love ineffable! 

Thy saving name is given; 

To turn aside from Thee is hell; 
To walk with Thee is heaven.” 


Pages might be filled with selections from 
many of his poems, expressing his thought of 
the strength and helpfulness of this Central 
Truth of Quakerism,—‘“the Divine Imman- 
ence,—the Inspeaking Word.” In addition 
to his letter given above, and the verses quoted 
from “Our Master,” it would seem that sim- 
ple reference to a few of his poems, in which 
his religious convictions are clearly stated, 
would suffice to show his estimate of the im- 
portance this Central Truth had assumed in 
his mind; such poems as “The Pennsylvania 
Pilgrim,’ — “Miriam,” — “The Meeting,” 
—“The Eternal Goodness,’—and ‘Revela- 
tion.”—all bear witness to this fact. 


Among the best-known English Friends of 
the recent past was John Wilhelm Rowntree, 
of whom it has been said that he “was the 
prophet of a new era of life for the Society 
of Friends;” and that “it was in the spirit of 
the First Publishers of Truth that he desired 
Friends to go forward to their new tasks to- 
day.’ Called upon to endure a great affliction 
in early manhood,—the loss of eyesight,—he 
was enabled to overcome, and became one of 
the most-beloved ministers among Friends. His 
experience at the time he learned that he was 
under the doom of coming and irreparable 
blindness was so remarkable that it is recalled 
here for the help and strength it may give to 
others who may, in many other ways, be called 
upon to be burden-bearers; 


“As he went out from the consultation 
into the street, and stood for a few moments 
by some railings to collect himself, he ‘‘sud- 
denly felt the love of God wrap him about 
as though a visible presence enfolded him, 
and a joy filled him such as he had never 


known before’.” 


A human soul that has had an experience 
like that must of necessity know that it has 
come face to face with Reality, and has found 
its love and its Truth to be all-sustaining. It 
is not strange that later he should write as 
follows ;— 


“But let us suppose that the strong blow 
of some great catastrophe were to strike 
me. Something that destroyed the routine 
of self-pleasing, and compelled me to face 
the realities which I have so steadfastly 
shirked. Let it be some permanent physical 
restriction like blindness, or some financial 
disaster involving penury,—no matter what. 
Where do I stand now?” * * * “In 
practical experience, how am I to know 
what is meant by listening to the voice of 
Christ, obeying Him and following Him? 
* * * Conscience is a guide I can fol- 
low. For example, be thoughtful of others, 
even in little things. Make a practice of 
forgetting yourself.” 


“But I cannot rest satisfied here. I seek 
not only discipline, but victory. I want to 


36 


know not only conscience, but Christ. Yes, 
but to the sincere experimentalist, using his 
conscience as a guide, and seeking always 
to focus his life on that of Jesus Christ, 
as he knows Him in the Gospels and recog- 
nizes Him in his faithful disciples, there 
comes a time when the line between con- 
science and Christ grows very thin. There 
comes a time when the higher life of which 
I am always aware, and which I have tried 
to follow, becomes so merged in my thought 
of Christ and my devotion to Him, that I 
can hardly distinguish the two in my mind.” 


It is not strange that one who had such 
experiences could write of Christian faith as 
follows ;— 


“It is a great mistake to think that faith 
is exclusively or even mainly an affair of the 
head. It is mainly an affair of the heart, 
a question of the spiritual temper or attitude 
of the soul. As William Law expresses it, 
in one of his essays, faith “is a living, work- 
ing power of the mind, that wills, desires, 


37 


and hopes and trusts and believes, and 
obeys.” Aye, obeys. ‘That is where our 
faith is weak. ‘That is where we need the 
potency of the Gospel. We know better 
than we do.’’* 


Another prophet of the new era among 
Friends, well-known to Friends both in our 
own country and in England, and also well- 
known by his writings far beyond the limits 
of his own Religious Society, is Dr. Rufus 
M. Jones, of Haverford, Pennsylvania. A 
student of the history of the early Friends, 
knowing them and their principles better per- 
haps than any other person now interested in 
this subject, no one is better qualified than 
he to bear witness as to the convictions and 
teachings of the early publishers of Truth 
among Friends. A few extracts from two or 
three of his recent books will serve to show 
what this modern Friend and prophet thinks 


* The quotations from John Wilheln Rowntree’s writ- 
ings are taken from “Christian Life, Faith and 
Thought in the Society of Friends,’’-—approved and 
adopted by London Yearly Meeting in 1921. 


38 


of the Central Truth, to which the early 
Friends bore witness. 

In his late book, — “The Inner Life,’’* 
—referring to Christianity as a living, present- 
day Faith, he says;— 


“Christianity is * * * vastly more than 
an historical religion, bound up forever with 
the incidents of its temporal origin. It is 
as much a present fact and a present power 
as electricity is. It is rooted in an inex- 
haustible source of life. * * * This tri- 
umphant and eternal principle of the spiri- 
tual life is, ‘according to John,” no vague, 
abstract principle of logic, but instead a 
warm, tender, intimate, concrete personifi- 
cation of Life, Light and Love, who has 
definitely incarnated the Truth, and re- 
vealed the nature of God and the possible 
glory of man.” 


Again, referring to the possible fulness of 
realization of the Divine Immanence by man, 
he says, in the same volume ;— 


*From “The Inner Life,” by Dr. Rufus M. Jones; 
cop. 1916 by The Macmillan Company, by permission 
of The Macmillan Company. 


39 


“But the full measure,—the length and 
breadth, depth and height, —of this new 
inner world does not come into view until 
one sees how through faith and love this 
man (St. Paul) has come into conscious 
relation with the Spirit of God inwardly 
revealed to him, and operative as a resident 
presence in his own spirit.” 


And again, referring to the impossibility of 
our understanding ourselves without the ac- 
ceptance of this Central Truth, he says ;— 


“We cannot explain our normal selves or 
account for the best things we know,—or 
even for our condemnation of our poorer, 
lower self, without an appeal to and ac- 
knowledgment of a Divine Guest and Com- 
panion, who is the real presence of our cen- 
tral Being.” 


Speaking of the value to the individual soul 
which this Truth of the Indwelling Presence 
of the Spirit has assumed in many cases, he 
says ;— 


40 


“It will be impossible for some of us 
ever to lose our faith in, our certainty of, 
this vital presence which over-arches our 
inner lives as surely as the sky does our 
outer lives. “The more we know of the great 
unveiling of God in Christ, the more we 
see that He is a Being who can be thus 
revealed in a personal life that is parallel 
in will with Him, and perfectly responsive 
in heart and mind to the spiritual presence.” 


In “The World Within,’* referring to St. 
Paul as the first to announce the fact that the 
Historic Christ had become for us the Eter- 
nal Christ, he says ;— 


“It was St. Paul who first expressed for 
all Christendom the basic idea of our reli- 
gion that the Person who had been for a 
definite historical period a visible, tangible 
revelation of God in the center of the little 
Galilean group has now become for us for- 
ever an invisible Life, an immanent Reality, 
*“The World Within’’; published by The Macmil- 


lan Company; 1918. cop. by The Macmillan Company, 
by permission of The Macmillan Company. 


4 


the self-giving, endlessly revealing Spirit,— 
“The Lord is the Spirit.”—St. Paul looks 
to this inward, resident Spirit as the su- 
preme dynamic for moral and spiritual life. 
* * * ‘The central ‘mystery’ which has 
been brought to light by the Gospel is, he 
insists, the “mystery” of Christ in men,— 
“Christ in you.” Life, in the light of this, 
takes on new and wonderful meaning, for 
it is nothing short of re-living Christ,—‘for 
me to live is Christ.” (Phil 1; 21) 


Referring to the purpose and effect of the 
inshining of the Light of Christ, he says, in 
the same volume ;— 


“Instead of a law-giver who fulminates 
commands, with terror of condemnation, the 
God of all mercy and tenderness “shines 
into our hearts to give the light of His 
glorious knowledge in the face of Jesus 
Christ.” And His revelation of light and 
grace and glory and righteousness does not 
remain outside us as something foreign and 
external, but it becomes a formative life and 


42 


power in us, and makes us a living letter, or 
epistle of Jesus Christ, with the new min- 
istry of glory written in the inmost sub- 
stance of our being, so that the Christian 
himself, and not a written document, is the 
exhibition of the message or covenant,—the 
believer himself is the document.” 


In the last-mentioned volume he quotes the 
following from a writer of the Seventeenth 
century ;— 


“As William Dell once put it in the 
Seventeenth century ;— 


“The true religion of Christ is written 
in the soul and spirit of man by the Spirit 
of God; and the believer is the only book 
in which God Himself writes His New 
Testament.” 


In his “Social Law in the Spiritual 
World,”* speaking of the convictions held by 
Friends of the present day, he says ;— 





: *“The Social Law in the Spiritual World”; pub- 
lished by The John C. Winston Co. 





43 


“The true view, the proper formulation, 
must hold that God is the inward principle 
and ground of the personal life,—the in- 
dwelling Life and Light of the soul, per- 
meating all the activities. Man’s spiritual , 
nature is rooted and grounded in the Divine 


Life.” 


In the last-mentioned volume, referring to 
the possible union of the Divine Spirit and 
the human spirit in one life, he says ;— 


“Instead of regarding the Inner Light as 
something foreign, it should rather be 
thought of as the Divine Life personally 
apprehended in our individual soul. It is 
both human and Divine. It is the actual 
inner self formed by the union of a Divine 
and a human element in a single individual 


life.” 


It is interesting to compare this last state- 
ment with the extract from the writings of 
John Wilhelm Rowntree, quoted above, in 
which he referred to a time 


“When the line between the conscience 
and Christ grows very thin,’—and a time 
“when the higher life of which I am always 
aware, and which I have tried to follow, 
becomes so merged in my thought of Christ, 
and my devotion to Him, that I can hardly 
distinguish the two in my mind.” 


Referring to the “test of Spiritual guid- 
ance,” in the book last-mentioned, Dr. Jones 
says ;— 


“The only test of some seeds is the ex- 
amination of their life-product in the devel- 
oped form. ‘This principle must always be 
applied to any claim to Spiritual guidance. 
If the thing manifested is of God, it will 
tend to construct a unified spiritual life 
which will better show the Divine nature in 
the world.” 


° 


In the extracts that have been presented 
from the writings of the early Friends, and 
some of their present-day followers, an effort 


45 


has been made to accept and follow Whittier’s 
counsel, and “direct our attention to the one 
Central Truth of Quakerism, — the Divine 
Immanence,—the Inspeaking Word ;”—and to 
do this, not merely because they taught it and 
he advised that we turn our attention to it,— 
but because it is sincerely believed by many 
to be the one vital and saving Truth of Chris- 
tianity, clearly taught by Our Lord and Mas- 
ter Himself, and by His immediate followers, 
and also accepted and proved by actual expe- 
rience in the lives of many of His devoted 
servants and friends in all ages. Being so, it 
should be most widely proclaimed, most gener- 
ally accepted and lived. 


It has been well said that 


“Quakerism should not be the cult of a 
few, but the life of a multitude. In the first 
instance it owed its vitality to the fact that 
it brought back to professing Christians the 
living power of the first message of Christ. 
“Union with Christ” was its inherent and 
persistent theme.’’* 


* From the Epistle of London Yearly Meeting, 1905. 


46 


To quote once again the words of one whose 
writings have already been freely referred to; 
Friends of this day believe that 


“There is room for a fellowship, all- 
inclusive in its tender sympathy; drawn 
close in the loving bondage of sincerity and 
truth; for a noble simplicity of life and 
manners, rich in true culture and the taste 
born of knowledge; for a freedom that 
scorns the flummeries of rank, and perquis- 
ites of pride, because it knows the worth of 
manhood and loves the privilege of friend- 
ship; for a simple worship, homely and in- 
formal because intimate and real.”’*' 


In one of his later poems, Whittier seemed 
to have the vision of the coming day when 
“all shall know Him, from the least of them 
to the greatest of them;” when all shall feel 
the indwelling presence of His Spirit in the 
heart; when all may hear His inspeaking 
Word and be enabled to do His will; and he 


** From “Essays and Addresses,” by John Wilhelm 
Rowntree, 1906. 


47 


closed his poem,—““The Vision of Echard,’’— 
with these words ;— 


“What if the vision tarry ?— 
God’s time is always best; 


The true Light shall be witnessed, 
The Christ within confessed: 


In mercy or in judgment 

He shall turn and overturn, 

Till the heart shall be His temple, 
Where all of Him shall learn.” 


Part Iwo 


es 
A alte i 4 i 


i 


Mu RA 


( Wd 





Part Two 


EXTRACTS RELATING TO LIGHT 


and to 


THE HOLY SPIRIT 


Being Quotations from the Bible and from Ancient 
and Modern Writers, referring to the Divine 
Immanence—the Presence of the Spirit 
of God or the Light of Christ 
in the Soul of Man. 


& 


..“We search the world for Truth;—we cull 
The good, the pure, the beautiful, 
And, weary seekers of the best, 
We come back laden from our quest, 
To find that all the sages said 
Is in the book our mothers read.” 


WHITTIER ;—‘“MiIRIAM.” 


“Faithful sayings, treasure houses or pre- 
cious and restful thoughts, which care cannet 
disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty 
take away from us,—houses built without 
hands for our souls to live in.”—RUSKIN. 


“And behold I am with thee, and will keep thee 
in all places whither thou goest.’—GENESIS xxviii; 
di; 


“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world.’—MATTHEW xxviii; 20. 


“Their characteristic or main distinguishing 
point or principle is; The Light of Christ 
within, as God’s gift for mans salvation.”— 
WILLIAM PENN; “The Rise and Progress of 
the People called Quakers.” 


“This hidden Light, this inward vision, this 
immediate union between the soul and God 
himself, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is the 
basis of the Quaker faith.”—JOHN WILLIAM 
ROWNTREE. 


“The Foundation of the Quaker faith is 
the inward revelation of Jesus Christ,—the 
great and all important Christian principle that 
the Light of Christ in man is his sufficient and 
saving teacher and guide.’ I accept that.’”— 


Henry W. WILBUR. 


52 


“If God will be with me, and will keep me in 
this way that I go, * * then shall the Lord be 
my God.’—GENESIS xxvili; 20-21. 


“And He said, My presence shall go with thee, 
and I will give thee rest.”—-ExoDUS xxxiii; 14. 


“But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration 
of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”—Jos 
RXR SS 

“It is, I think, a source of profound en- 
couragement to us in maintaining the doctrine 
that the spirits of men are bound together with 
one another and with the Spirit of God in the 
girdle of love, to remember that we have be- 
hind us so long a sequence of prophets, reach- 
ing back in actual historical continuity to the 
inspired Pharaoh of Tel-el-Amarna, across the 
thousands of years. It falls even to us to carry 
his teaching to its far-off fulfillment.” —JoHN 
WILLIAM GRAHAM. 

(The Pharaoh here referred to is Akhnaton, 
commonly called, ‘“The Heretic King,” who 
reigned B. C. 1375-1358.) 


“T am sure that there is a common Spirit 
that plays within us, and that it is the Spirit 
of God.”—Sir THomas Brown ;—‘Religio 
Medici.” 

53 


“Tt is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who 
shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, 
that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond 
the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over 
the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may 
hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto 
thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou may- 
est do it.’”—DEUTERONOMY xxx : 12-14. 


“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, 
neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is 
with thee whithersoever thou goest.”—JOSHUA i : 9. 


“So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man, 
When Duty whispers low; “Thou must!” 


The Youth replies; “I can.” 
EMERSON. 


Christ (the Word) was “the true Light that 
lighteth every man that cometh into the 
world.” 


54 


“And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and 
satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in 
obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and 
the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy 
thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and 
thou shalt be like a watered garden, whose waters 
fail not.”—ISAIAH lviii : 10-11. 


“And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by 
the Spirit which he hath given us.”—I Joun iii : 24. 


“THou, O Christ! art all I want: 

All in all in Thee I find: 

Raise the fallen; cheer the faint; 

Heal the sick, and lead the blind! 
# # x 


Thou of life the fountain art! 
Freely let me take of Thee! 
Spring Thou up within my heart! 
Rise to all eternity!” 
CHARLES WESLEY. 


“Not one in mankind is exempted from this 
illumination. * * * God discovers Himself 
to every man.”—-WILLIAM PENN. 


55 


“But this shall be the covenant that I will make 
with the house of Israel; After those days, saith 
the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, 
and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, 
and they shall be my people: 

“And they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know 
the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least 
of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; 
for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem- 
ber their sin no more.’—JEREMIAH xxxi : 33-34. 


The above is quoted in part in the New 
Testament; see Hebrews; 10 ch. 16 v. And 
it was no doubt to this Scripture that Jesus 
referred when he said ;— 


“It is written in the prophets, And they shall be 
all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath 
heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto 
me.’-—JOHN vi : 45. 


“There is for all a potential divine Son- 
ship. The Inner Light is a universal and 
Saving Light. God has left none without 
the witness of His Spirit.” —ELBERT RUSSEL; 
—‘The Spirit of Quakerism.” 


56 


“Arise shine; for thy light ts come, and the glory 
of the Lord is risen upon thee.”—IsAtAuH Ix : 1, 


“The sun shall be no more thy light by day; 
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto 
thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlast- 
ing light, and thy God thy glory. 


“Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall 
thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be 
thine everlasting light, and the day of thy mourning 
shall be ended.’—IsAtau Ix : 19-20. 


“Tt is the doctrine of Friends that the light 
of Divine Truth, or Spirit of Christ, appears 
to all men; to the wicked He comes as a re- 
prover for sin, “the spirit of judgment and the 
spirit of burning,” but to the obedient and 
dedicated soul as a comforter in righteous- 
ness.’—SAMUEL M. JANNEY. 


57 


“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not nor 
be afraid * * * for the Lord thy God, He it ts 
that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor 
forsake thee.”—DEUTERONOMY xxxi : 6. 


“The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let 
us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let 
us put on the armor of light.”—ROMAN; xiii : 12. 


“The constant standard of truth and good- 
ness is God in the conscience, and liberty of 
conscience is therefore the most sacred right, 
and the only avenue to religion.” —WILLIAM 
PENN; (quoted by George Bancroft in his 
History of the United States; Vol. I, chap. 
16.) 


“In joy of inward peace, or sense 
Of sorrow over sin, 

He is His own best evidence, 
His witness is within.” 


WHITTIER; “Our Master.” 


“Be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the 
Lord, and work; for I am with you, saith the Lord 
of hosts.’—HAccat ii : 4. 


“He that abideth in me, and I in him, bringeth 
forth much fruit.’—JoHN xv : 4. 


“For they were directed to the Light of 
Jesus Christ within them, as the seed and 
leaven of the Kingdom of God, near all be- 
cause in all, and God’s talent to all, a faith- 
ful and just witness and just monitor in every 
bosom, the gift and grace of God to life and 
salvation that appears to all, though few re- 
gard it.’— WILLIAM PENN; Preface to 
George Fox’s Journal.” 


“Let man then learn the revelation of all 
nature and all thought to his heart; this, 
namely; that the Highest dwells with him; 
that the sources of nature are in his own mind, 
if the sentiment of duty is there.’”—EMERSON; 


“The Over-Soul.” 


59 


“When thou passeth through the waters, I will 
be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not 
overflow thee.”’—ISAIAH xxxxili : 2. 


“IT am with thee, to deliver thee.,—JEREMIAH i : 8. 


“And his name shall be called, Immanuel, which 
is being interpreted; God with us.’—MATTHEW i : 
236 


“Tneffable is the union of man and God in 
every act of the soul. * * * When we have 
broken our god of tradition and ceased from 
our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the 
heart with His presence.’”—EMErRsSON; ‘‘Spir- 
itual Laws.” 


“WHEN through the deep waters I call thee to go, 
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow: 

For I will be with thee, thy sorrow to bless, 

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.” 


ANON. 


“This was the true Light which lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world.”—JOHN i: 9. 


“The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath 
appeared unto all men,’—Titus ii : 11. 


“Now the Lord God hath opened to me by 
His invisible power how that every man was 
enlightened by the divine Light of Christ; I 
saw it shine through all.”—Grorce Fox; 
Journal. 


‘“’The one corner stone of belief upon which 
the Society of Friends is built is the convic- 
tion that God does indeed communicate with 
each of the spirits He has made, in a direct 
and living inbreathing of some measure of His 
own life; that He never leaves Himself with- 
out a witness in the heart as well as the sur- 
roundings of man.’—CAROLINE STEPHEN; 
“Quaker Strongholds.” 


“One faith alone, so broad that all mankind 
Within themselves its secret witness find.” 


WHITTIER :—“The Pennsylvania Pilgrim,” — 


61 


“T am come a light into the world, that whosoever 
believeth in me should not abide in darkness.” — 
JOHN xii : 46. 


“As long as I am in the world, I am the light 
of the world.’—JOHN ix : 5. 


“While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye 
may be the children of light.”—Joun xii : 36. 


“God did teach him (George Fox) by His 
Spirit. The Light shone in his soul and he 
saw the truth. He did not get it from the 
Bible, though it was there. He knew it first 
by revelation, and then, with the revelation 
enlightening him, he could see the truth in the 
Scriptures. ‘This is his doctrine of the Inward 
Light.”—-TuRNER; ‘““The Quakers.” 


“No picture to my aid I call: 
I shape no image in my prayer; 
I only know in Him is all 
Of life, light, beauty, everywhere ;— 
Eternal Goodness here and there!” 


WHITTIER :—“Revelation.” 


“For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light 
shall we see light.’—PsaLM xxxvi : 9. 


“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying: I 
am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall 
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of 
life.’—JOHN viii : 12. 

“ , .. that coherent conception of human 
life and human culture which recognizes the 
Divine Spirit as present and operative in all 
the higher strivings of man.’ — PHILLIPS 
BROOKS. 


“LEAD! Kindly Light! amid the encircling gloom; 
Lead Thou me on! 

The night is dark, and I am far from home; 
Lead Thou me on! 

Guide Thou my feet! I do not ask to see 

The distant scene; one step enough for me!” 


JoHN Henry NEWMAN. 


“Friends, mind the Light!”,—GerorceE Fox. 


“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give 
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
forever; 


“Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot 
receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth 
him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, 
and shall be in you.’—JOHN xiv : 16-17. 


“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ 
Jesus.” —PHILLIPIANS ii : 5. 


“Only so far as God is present in our ex- 
perience can we know anything about Him at 
all. It is the immanence of the transcendent, 
the presence of the infinite in our finite lives, 
that alone explains the essential nature of 
man.’’—PRINGLE-PATTISON ; ‘“The Spirit.” 


“Let us not build altars in temples made 
with hands, but in our own souls, where, un- 
trammeled and alone, we can hold intelligent 
communion with God.”—Witson S. Doan. 


64+ 


“Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he 
will guide you into all truth.’—JouN xvi : 13. 


“The Spirit is the criterion. The Spirit is 
the guide which leads into all truth. The 
Quaker reads the Scriptures with delight, but 
not with idolatry. It is his own soul which 
bears the valid witness that they are true.”— 
GEORGE BANCROFT. 


“Let us lie low in the Lord’s power and 
learn that truth alone makes rich and great.” 
—Emerson; “Spiritual Laws.” 


“Looking through George Fox’s life, and 
viewing him as the great champion of purely 
spiritual worship, one is inclined to say, with 
William Penn, that his epitaph might well be; 
“Many sons have done virtuously, but thou 
excellest them all.” —-CHARLES H. SPURGEON. 


65 


“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you free.’—JOHN viii : 32. 


‘“‘How may we determine what is true? I 
know no answer except this; We must trust 
the Spirit of God acting through man’s ra- 
tional and moral powers. ‘This is the Inward 
Light,—the Light which lighteth every man.” 
—Amory H. Braprorp. 


“Love bids touch truth, endure truth, and embrace 
Truth, though, embracing truth, love crush itself. 
“Worship not me, but God!” the angels urge; 
That is love’s grandeur.” 


ROBERT BROWNING. . 


“This emphasis on the Inward Light does 
not discredit Jesus Christ as Master; rather it 
provides the only trustworthy means of verify- 
ing the validity of His claims. In the Inner 
Light He stands crowned, and worthy of both 
loyalty and worship.”—AMory H. BrapForp. 


66 


“In him was life, and the life was the light of 
men. ’—JOHN i : 4. 


“There is light in every man, which so il- 
-luminates his mind as to make it capable of 
discerning reality. * * * ‘This Inward 
Light reveals what is true in the Bible, in 
other books, in man, and in the universe; also 
it creates the desire to do the things which it 
reveals to be right.”—Amory H. BrapForp. 


“CHRIST,—whose glory fills the skies! 
Christ,—the true and only Light! 

Sun of Righteousness,—Arise! 
Triumph o’er the shades of night! 
Day-spring from on high, be near! 
Day-star,—in my heart appear!” 


CHARLES WESLEY. 


“With firmness in the right, as God gives us to 
see the right.” 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


67 


“And the glory which thou hast given me I have 
given unto them; that they may be one, even as we 
are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may 
be perfected into one.”—JOHN xvii : 22-23. 


“Glory is manifested excellence; light shin- 
ing, not so much from without as lit up from 
within It means inherent brightness, recog- 
nized, radiant, resplendent. Perhaps hardly 
enough stress is laid on this aspect of the in- 
dwelling Christ, either in the theology or the 
religion of the day.’—W. T. Davison; 
“The Indwelling Spirit.” 


“Tt is the living Christ we want to find, the 
eternal revealer of the will of God. It is the 
Spirit behind the letter that we need.’’—State- 
ment of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting,—1919. 


68 


“That was the true Light, which lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world. He was in the 
world, and the world was made by him, and the 
world knew him not. He came unto his own, and 
his own received him not. But as many as received 
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of 
God, even to them that believe on his name.”’—JouN 
be 912) 


“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, 
they are the sons of God.’—ROMANS viii : 14. 


“It is written that “when the fullness of 
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made 
of a woman, made under the law to redeem 
them that were under the law, that we might 
receive the adoption of sons, and “because ye 
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of 
His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, 
Father.” —(Galatians iv : 6.) SAMUEL M. 
JANNEY. 


69 


“To all my dear Friends and brethren 
everywhere; 


. “He that hath the Son of God hath life, 
and all that have not. the Son of God have 
not life. The Son of God is He that makes 
free from sin, and is come to deface and de- 
stroy the image of the devil, and to renew 
us up into the image of God, and to lead us 
into all righteousness. Blessed be the Glori- 
ous God, who has sent His Son into the 
world, to take away the sins of the world.”’— 
From an Epistle of George Fox, written in 
1652—(when he was 28 years of age). 


“The Quaker has but one word,—the In- 
ner Light,—the Voice of God in the soul. 


“That Light is a reality, and therefore in 
its freedom the highest revelation of truth; it 
is kindred with the Spirit of God, and there- 
fore merits dominion as the guide to virtue; it 


shines in every man’s breast, and therefore joins 
the whole human race in the unity of equal 


rights.’—-GEORGE BANCROFT; History of the 
U. S. Vol. I; Chapter 16. 


. 70 


“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, 
that we are the children of God; And if children, 
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; 
if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also 
be glorified together.’—ROMANS viii : 16-17. 


“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the 
Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, 
Father.”—GaA.aTIANs iv : 6. 


“CurisT in the heart! If absent there, 
Thou canst not find Him anywhere. 
Christ in the heart! O Friends, begin, 
And build the throne of Christ within!” 


ANON. 


“The term that the Friends have most 
largely used for their religious mysticism is the 
“Inner Light’; though it is not the only term 


they have used. We find such expressions as 
“that of God within you,’ and the “Christ 


within,’ and the “Spirit of Christ,” the “Holy 
Spirit,” ; the “Seed,” and the “Seed of God.” 
—ELBERT Russet ;—‘“The Spirit of Quaker- 
ism.” 


7 


“It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.”—GALA- 
TIANS i : 15. 


“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the 
witness in himself.’—I JOHN v : 10. 


“TI turned them to the Spirit in themselves, 
a measure of which was given to every one of 
them,—that they might know God and Christ, 
and the Scriptures aright.” —GEorGE Fox. 


“Instead of looking for God, then, behind 
the vast mechanism of matter, or beyond the 
starry spaces, we should look for him very 
much closer home, as the God in whom we 
live, and move and are; the immanent, and at 
the same time transcendent, Spirit in immedi- 
ate conjunction with our own souls. He is, 
thus, as Thomas Hill Green used to say, as 
near to us as our own conscience is.”—-RUFUS 
M. Jones; “Religion as Reality, Life and 
Power.” 


72 


“Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a 
son; and if a son, then an heir of God, through 
Christ.’—GaALATIANS iv : 7, 


“Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he 
in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.’? — I 
JouHN iv : 13. 


“© my brothers, God exists. ‘There is a 
soul at the center of nature and over the will 
of every man, so that none of us can wrong 
the universe.’—EMeErsON; “Spiritual Laws.”’ 


“Protestantism has never found any final 
resting place short of this principle of Quaker- 
ism, that the final religious authority is in- 
ward, for there is in man not only the Light 
of God, “‘that lighteth every man coming into 
the world,’ but also the capacity to sense the 
Light and follow it.’—-ELBERT RUSSELL; 
“The Spirit of Quakerism.” 


73 


“Wherefore he saith; Awake, thou that sleepest, 
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee 
light.”—-EPHESIANS v : 14. 


In the 57th chapter of Isaiah he declares; 
“Thus saith the high and lofty One that in- 
habiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell 
in the high and holy place, with him also that 
is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the 
spirit of the humble and to revive the heart 
of the contrite one.’—SAMUEL M. JANNEY- 


“T could not be, O God, could not be at all, 
wert Thou not in me; rather, were not I in 
Thee, of whom all things are, by whom all 
things are, in whom all things are.’”—Auc- 
USTINE; “Confessions.” 


“The Christian revelation afirms that God 
‘is in every human soul, and that the quickness 
with which we turn toward truth and right 
are the response of God to His own. ‘The 
Quaker doctrine of the Inward Light, then, is 
substantially the Christian doctrine of the In- 
dwelling Spirit.’”—AmMory H. BrapForp. 


74 


“But unto every one of us is given grace, accord- 
ing to the measure of the gift of Christ.’—Epue- 
SIANS iv : 7. 


“The Divine Seed is in all men. As men 
realize its presence and follow the Light of 
Christ in their hearts they enter upon the right 
way of life, and receive power to overcome 
evil with good. ‘Thus will be built the City 
of God.”—From an Appeal to All Men, is- 
sued by the Meeting for Sufferings,—London, 
1919. 


“He suddenly found God as a living pres- 
ence within,—I knew Him experimentally, he 
says. * * * ‘There is something of God, 
which may be called a divine seed or a divine 
light, laid down in the nature and disposition 
of the soul.’"—Rurus M. Jones; “Life and 
Message of George Fox.” 


“THERE is a vision in the heart of each. 
Of Justice, Mercy, Wisdom; tenderness. 
To wrong and pain, and knowledge of its cure.” 


ROBERT BROWNING; “Paracelsus.” 


75 


“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”—CoLossIANs 
Atiiads 


“It appears to have been the great work of 
George Fox and the early Friends to draw the 
attention of mankind from a reliance upon the 
outward form to an experience of the inward 
power of religion.”—-SAMUEL M. JANNEY. 


“For him salvation was not believing the 
doctrine of the atonement; it was a living, tri- 
umphant deliverance from sin and the love of 
it, and the formation of a new and Christlike 
nature and spirit within.” —-RuFus M. Jones. 


“AnpD I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean, and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.” 


WorpswortH: “Tintern Abbey.” 


76 i 


“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the 
Spirit.”—GALATIANS v : 25. 


“But some may desire to know what I have 
at last met with. I answer; ‘I have met with 
the Seed.” Understand that word, and thou 
wilt be satisfied and inquire no further. I 
have met with my God, I have met with my 
Saviour, and He hath not been present with 
me without His salvation but I have felt the 
healings drop upon my soul from under His 
wings. ’—IsAac PENINGTON. 


(By ‘‘Seed” the early Friends meant a part 
of the divine nature, capable of growth, which 
was brought into the heart of man.” From 
“Christian Life, Faith and Thought in the 
Society of Friends.” 


“Hoty Spirit, Truth Divine! 
Dawn upon this soul of mine; 
Word of God, and Inward Light, 
Wake my spirit, clear my sight.” 


SAMUEL LONGFELLOW: “Inspiration.” 


77 


“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” 
—II CorINTHIANS ix : 15. 


ce 


. . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” 
—COLOSSIANS i : 27, 


“Would you know the blessing of all bless- 
ings? It is this God of Love dwelling in your 
soul, and killing every root of bitterness, which 
is the pain and torment of every earthly, selfish 
love.’—WILLIAM Law. 


“On, gift of gifts! Oh, grace of grace! 
That God should condescend 

To make thy heart His dwelling place, 
And be thy daily Friend! 


Then go not thou in search of Him, 
But to thyself repair; 

Wait thou within the silence dim, 
And thou ‘shalt find Him there!” 


FREDERICK L. HosMeER: “The Indwelling God.” 


78 


“T will pray the Father and He shall give you 
another Comforter, that he may abide with you for 
ever, even the Spirit of Truth.” 


“For he that dwelleth with you shall be in you. 
I will not leave you comfortless, I will come. to 
you.’—JOHN xiv : 16-18. 


“The term Christ is applied by the apostles 
to the Spirit of God as manifested in man. 
For instance, Paul writes of the children of 
Israel under Moses, “they did all eat of the 
same spiritual meat, and they did all drink 
the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that 
spiritual rock that followed them, and that 
rock was Christ.””—(I Corinthians x : 4.)— 
SAMUEL M. JANNEY. 


“TRUTH is within ourselves; it takes no rise 
From outward things, whate’er you may believe; 
There is an inmost center in us all, 

Where truth abides in fullness; and around, 
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 

This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.” 


BROWNING: “Paracelsus.” 


79 


“Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and 
need not that any man should teach you.’—l JOHN 
4) 320, 


“In fact there can be no saving knowledge’ 
of Christ but from immediate revelation. “No 
man can come to me,” said Jesus, “except the 
Father which hath sent me draw him.”’— 

(John vi : 44.)— 

“This drawing of the Father is the opera- 
tion of His Spirit, for “the manifestation of 
the Spirit is given to every man to profit 
withal.”—(Corinthians xii : 7.)—SAMUEL 
M. JANNEY. 


“Blessed is the soul which heareth the Lord 
speaking within her, and from His mouth re- 
ceiveth the word of comfort.’—THomas A. 
KEMPIS. 


“The idea of God with us, the incarnation 
of the Spirit, the union of Deity with human- 
ity, was to the Quaker the dearest and the 
most sublime symbol of man’s enfranchise- 
ment.” —GEORGE BANCROFT. 


80 


“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and 
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”—I Corin- 
THIANS iii : 16. 


“And what agreement hath the temple of God 
with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; 
as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk 
in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be 
my people.”—II CORINTHIANS vi : 16. 


“God hath built to Himself a natural tem- 
ple in the consciences of men as the place 
wherein He would be worshipped, and it is 
there that men ought to look for His appear- 
ance, and reverence and worship Him.’—Jus- 
TIN Martyr. 


“Gradually Fox’s mind cleared. The doc- 
trine of an Inner Light, of Christ dwelling in 
the heart of the believer as a teacher and a 
purifier even to the entire extinction of sin, 
solved all difficulties.” —GarDINER; ‘History 
of the Commonwealth and Protectorate.” 


$1 


“But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus 
from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ 
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”’—ROMANS viii : 
at, 


“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple 
of the Holy Ghost? which is in you, which ye have 
of God, and ye are not your own?’’—I CORINTHIANS 
vi : 19. 


“HELD our eyes no sunny sheen, 
How could sunshine e’er be seen? 


Dwelt no Power Divine within us, 
How could God’s Divineness win us?” 


GOETHE-SCHILLER: “The Xenien.” 


“When a man lives with God, his voice shall 
be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and 
the rustle of the corn.”—EmMeERSON; “Self- 
Reliance.” 


82 


“He that is of God heareth God’s words.”—JouN 
viii : 47. 


“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on 
Him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my 
disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and 
the truth shall make you free.”—JOHN viii : 31-32. 


“,.. this youth (George Fox) had never- 
theless, a Living Spirit belonging to him; also 
an antique Inspired Volume, through which, 
as through a window, it could look upwards, 
and discern its celestial Home.” — THOMAS 
CaRLYLE; ‘Sartor Resartus.” 


“He was a fallible man, like the rest of us, 
and he was not always wise, but this can be 
said; He minded the Light in his soul and He 
DID what He dared to dream of.’”—RuFus 
M. Jonss; “Life and Message of George 
Fox.” 


“THEIR higher nature knew 
They love truth best who to themselves are true, 
And what they dare to dream of, dare to do.” 


LOWELL. 


83 


“In the beginning was the word; and the word 
was with God; and the word was God.’—JouN 


Ruighay 


« . . « In him was life, and the life was the 
light of men.”—JOHN i : 4. 


“Though he refused to give to the scriptures 
the title of the Word of God, he nevertheless 
held them to be the words of God guiding and 
instructing in the paths of blessedness, if only 
they were intercepted by God’s light shining 
in the heart of the spiritual man.”—GarpI- 
NER; “History of the Commonwealth and Pro- 
tectorate.” 


“MOREOVER, not by narrow Reason’s ray 

Shall this be ever compassed, but by light 
Larger and brighter, shining from the heart.” 
Sir Epwin ARNOLD: “The Light of the World.” 


84 


“For God, who commanded the light to shine out 
of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the 
face of Jesus Christ.”—II CorINTHIANS iv : 6. 


“Tt is the voice of Truth that light will 
shine out of darkness. Therefore doth it shine 
in the hidden part of mankind, that is in the 
heart; and the rays of knowledge break forth, 
making manifest and shining upon the inward 
man which is hidden; Christ’s intimates and 
co-heirs are the disciples of the Light.’’—CLE- 
MENS ALEXANDRINUS. 


“The Inward Light reveals the truths which 
satisfy the profound, constant, and universal 
Stine, ey 
aspirations of humanity.’—Amory H. Brap- 
FORD. 


O Heavenly Light! From God’s own presence shin- 
ing! 
Be near us mid the shadows we meet upon our way; 
Enlighten Thou our hearts! Cheer us from sin’s 
repining; 
“Shine on us more and more unto the perfect day!” 
ANON. 


85 


“Christ — the brightness of God’s glory and the 
express image of His person.” —HEBREWS i : 3. 


a 


“GLory around thee, about thee; and thou fulfillest 
thy doom,— 


Making Him broken gleams, a mingled splendor and 
gloom. 


Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with 
spirit can meet; 

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands 
and feet.” 


TENNYSON: “The Higher Pantheism.” 


“The Inner Light is to the Quaker not only 
the revelation of truth, but the guide of life 
and the oracle of duty.” GEORGE BANCROFT. 


“His foundation theory of man, as a being 
possessed of something of God, taught from 
within by direct illumination, made Him hope- 
ful and persistently expectant. He saw in Ne- 
groes and Indians, in the unfavored races 
everywhere, moral and spiritual possibilities 
which others had hardly suspected.” —RUFUS 
M. Jones; “Life and Message of George 
Fox.” 


86 


“In whom ye also are builded together for an 
habitation of God through the Spirit.’—EPHESIANS 
Grice: 


“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ * * that he would grani 
you, according to the riches of His glory, to be 
strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner 
man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by 
faith; * * and to know the love of Christ, which 
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all 
the fullness of God.’’—EPHESIANS iii : 14-18. 


“Q Love! O Life! our faith and sight 
Thy presence maketh one; 
As through transfigured clouds of white 
We trace the noon-day sun.” 
WuirttTigr: “Our Master.” 


87 


“What is Christianity?—It is the life of 
God in the soul of man.” —ANON. 


“The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ 
are the same, as further appears by the follow- 
ing text; ‘““Ye are not in the flesh but in the 
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in 
you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ, he is none of His.’ —(Romans viii: 9.) 
—SAMUEL M. JANNEY. 


“Christianity ought to mean in every man 
a reconstitution of his whole nature in relation 
to God and his fellows, and this means the 
renewal of His inmost Spirit by the indwelling 


of the Divine.” —W. ‘T. Davison; ‘The In- 
dwelling Spirit.” 


“The highest court of appeal is within every 
man. ‘This is Paul’s doctrine when he writes 
of the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits; 
or of the indwelling God confirming the high- 
est intellectual conclusions and the deepest 
moral convictions of intelligent and pure 
souls.’—Amory H. BrapForp. 


88. 


“One God and Father of all, who is above all, 
and through all, and in you all.”’--EPHESIANS iv : 6. 


“God is nigh thee; He is with thee; He is 
within thee; I tell thee, Lucilius, there is a 
Holy Spirit who sits within us all, the observer 
and the guardian of all the good and evil we 
do.” —SENECA. 


“The enduring Power, not ourselves, that 
makes for righteousness.””’ — MATTHEW Ar- 
NOLD; “Literature and Dogma.” 


“The basis of his (George Fox’s) teaching 
was the belief that each soul is in religious 
matters answerable not to its fellows, but to 
God alone, without priestly mediation, because 
the Holy Spirit is immediately present in every 
soul, and is thus a direct cause of illumination.” 
—JOHN Fiske; ‘Dutch and Quaker Colonies 
in America.” 


“Take all in a word! The truth in God’s breast 
Lies trace for trace upon ours impressed. 

Though He is so bright, and we are so dim, 

We are made in His image to witness Him!” 


BROWNING: “Christmas Eve.” 


89 


“God * * * hath shined in our hearts, that we 
should make shine the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’— 


“Be filled with the Spirit.’—-EPHESIANS v : 18. 
II CoRINTHIANS iv : 6. 


“What men need to know in personal ex- 
perience is not so much the existence of God 
afar off as Creator and Ruler, but God here 
and now as an indwelling Spirit.”— W. T. 
Davison; “The Indwelling Spirit.” 


“THe dear Christ dwelleth not afar,— 
The King of some remoter star,— 

But here amid the poor and blind, 

The wronged and suffering of our kind, 
In works we do, in prayers we pray, 

Life of our life, He lives today.” 


WHiriTier: “The Meeting.” 


“AND every virtue we possess, 

And every victory won, 

And every thought of holiness 
Are His alone.” 


HARRIET AUBER. 


90 


“So let your Light shine before men that they may 
see your good works, and glorify your Father which 
is in heaven.”—MATTHEW v : 16. 


“Tf ye know these things, happy are if ye do 
them.” —JOHN xiii : 17. 


“Knowledge of the Truth is good; fidelity 
to the Truth is better; and the union of these, 
—knowledge of, and fidelity to, the Truth,— 
realizes the highest aim of the human spirit, 
and is the only true success that men may 
know.” —ANON. 


“T have always thought of William Penn as 
a Knight of the Spirit, setting forth on a holy 
quest, to do his Father’s will.’ — Wooprow 
WILSON. 


“Trey followed Truth and found her 
Where all may hope to find,— 
* * # 


Where faith, made whole by deed, 
Breathes its awakening breath 
Into the lifeless creed.” 


LoweLL: “The Commemoration Ode.” 


91 


“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and 
that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you?”—I Cor- 
INTHIANS iii : 16. 


“WITHIN himself he found the law of right 
He walked by faith and not the letter’s sight, 
And read his Bible by the Inward Light.” 


WuitTlrr: “The Pennsylvania Pilgrim.” 


“If we are living different and better lives 
because of Christ, then he lives in us, and his 
work has been fruitful in that we are new 
creatures in him.”—-ELBERT RUSSELL; ‘As 
each Day Comes.” 


“We know of no Inner Light but that of 
the Lord Jesus Christ in the soul. When we 
talk of the Inner Light we mean nothing more 
nor less than George Fox meant by the words, 
the Christ Within. * * * We recognize no 
Inner Light that is not an emanation of God 
Himself. But whatever we call it,—whether 
Inner Light, or Holy Spirit, or Christ Within, 
— it is the same thing.’ — SyL_vanus P. 
‘THOMPSON. 


92 


“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, 
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood 
of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin.” 
—I JoHN i: 7. 


“He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, 
and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” 
—I JouN ii : 10. 


“WALK in the Light and thou shalt know 
That fellowship of love 

The Spirit only can bestow, 

Who dwells in light above. 


Walk in the Light, thy path shall be 

A path, though thorny, bright; 

For God, thy grace, shall dwell in thee, 
And God himself is Light!” 


BERNARD BARTON, 


“THROUGH love to light! How wonderful the way 
That leads through darkness to the perfect day! 
Through darkness and through dolors of the night 
To morning that comes shining o’er the sea. 
Through love to light! Through light, O God, to 
Thee! 
Who art the love of love,—the eternal light of 
light!” 
RICHARD WATSON GILDER. 


93 


“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 
—II CORINTHIANS iii : 17. 


“If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is 
none of His.’—-ROMANS viii : 10. 


“Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice.” 
—JOHN xvili : 37. 


‘Liberty is to suspect and yet reverence self; 
* * * to reverence that within us which is 
allied to God, redeemed by God the Son, and 
made a temple of the Holy Ghost.” —FREDER- 
IcK W. RoBeERTSON; “Freedom by the Truth.” 


“Reward is, in the order of grace, the na- 
tural consequence of well-doing. It is life 
becoming more life. It is the Holy Spirit of 
God in man making itself more felt, and ming- 
ling more and more with his soul, felt more 
consciously with an ever-increasing heaven.’’— 
FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON. 


94 


“I am come that they might have life, and that 
they might have it more abundantly.”—JouN x : 10. 


“He that hath the Son of God hath life, and he 
that hath not the Son of God hath not life.’—I Joun 
wie1Z, 


“IT in them, and Thou in me; that they may be 
perfected into one.”’—JOHN xvii : 23. 


“Nothing is adequate for man that stops 
short of binding the human and the Divine 
together into one single life-process.’””—-RUFUS 
M. Jones; “Religion as Reality, Life and 
Power.” 


“There comes a time when the higher life 
of which I am always aware, and which I 
have tried to follow, becomes so merged in my 
thought of Christ and my devotion to Him, 
that I can hardly distinguish the two in my 
mind.” —JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 


“BUT warm, sweet, tender, even yet 
A present help is He; 

And faith has still its Olivet, 

And love its Galilee.” 


Wuittier: “Our Master.” 


95 


“This then is the message, which we have heard 
of him and declare unto you, that God is Light, 
and in him is no darkness at all.”—I JOHN i: 5. 


“Ye are all the children of light, and the children 
of the day; we are not of the night, nor of the 
darkness.’——I 'THESSALONIANS v : 5. 


“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”—-CoLOSSIANS 
Wrage 


“The Christ that is in the hearts of believers 
is but a faint foreshadowing of the Christ that 
is to be.”——W. T. Davison; “The Indwelling 
Spirit.” . 


“HAIL to thee, thou Hebrew youth, 
Light of life and soul of truth! 
Blest the day that gave thee birth, 
Bringing hope to all the earth! 


Be our eyes unsealed to see 
What thou wert we are to be: 
Seeing thee divinely fair, 

All shall then thy likeness wear!” 


WILLIAM H. Furness, 


96 


“That they may be one, even as we are one; I in 
them, and Thou in me, that they may be perfected 
into one.”—JOHN xvii : 23. 


“THAT Presence and that Power who fills 
All hearts with what is Life and what is Love.” 
Sir EDWIN ARNOLD: “The Light of the World.” 


“Anp largest, fullest, in His own sure soul 
Dwelt immanent “Our Father.” 


Sir EpwIN ARNOLD: “The Light of the World.” 


“There is no other way to know God but 
this way of inner love-experience. Only a 


son can know a Father.” —RuFrus M. Jongs; 
“The Inner Life.” * 


“SHow me Thy face, — one transient gleam of love- 
liness divine, 
And I will never think or dream of other love than 
Thine; 
All lesser light shall vanish quite, all lower glories 
wane; 
The beautiful of earth shall then a holier radiance 
gain.” 
ANON. 


*From “The Inner Life,” by Dr. Rufus M. Jones; 
cop. 1916 by The Macmillan Company, by permission 
of The Macmillan Company. 


97 


“And we all, with open face, beholding as in a 
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
same image, from glory to glory, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord.’—II CoriNTHIANS iii : 18. 


“A willing ear 

We lent him. Who but hung to hear 

The rapt oration flowing free 

From point to point, with power and grace, 

And music in the bounds of law, 

To those conclusions when we saw 

The God within him light his face!” 

TENNYSON: “In Memoriam”; 

(of Arthur Hallam.) 


“Some time or other, at some rare moments 
of the Divine Spirit’s supremacy in our souls, 
we all put on the heavenly face that will be 
ours hereafter, and for a brief lightning space 
our friends behold us as we shall look when 
this mortal has put on immortality. On Arthur 
Hallam’s brow and eyes this heavenly light, so 
fugitive on other human faces, rested habitu- 
ally.”—-Frances A. KEMBLE. 


98 


“God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must 
worship Him in spirit and in truth.”’—JOHN iv : 24. 


“Ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and 
shall be in you.”—JOuN xiv : 18. 


“His light shines on me from above ;— 
His low voice speaks within ;— 

The patience of Immortal Love 
Outwearying mortal sin.”— 


Witter: “My Birthday.” 


“Christian liberty is right will, sustained by 
love, and made firm by faith in Christ.”— 
FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON. 


“HEARKEN! Hearken! 
God speaketh in thy soul.” 


ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. 


99 


“Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for 
the upright in heart.’—PsaLM Ixxxxvii : 11. 


“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
the bond of peace.”’—EPHESIANS iv : 3. 


“IT found no narrowness (in my heart) re- 
specting sects and opinions; but believed that 
sincere, upright-hearted people, in every so- 
ciety, were accepted of Him.’ —]JoHN WOoL- 
MAN- 


“For there was freedom in that wakening time 

Of tender souls; to differ was not crime; 

The varying bells made up the perfect chime.” 
Wuirttrr: “The Pennsylvania Pilgrim.” 


“T will not meanly decline the immensity of 
good, because I have heard that it has come 
to others in another shape.” —EMERSON; “‘Spi- 
ritual Laws.” 


“We love and claim freedom for ourselves; 
why not, then, cheerfully grant it to others >— 
as being their right, even as our freedom is 
our right ?”—-ANON. 


100 


“Whereof I was made a minister, according to the 
gift of the grace of God, given unto me by the effec- 
tual working of his power.”—EPHESIANS iii : 7. 


“To open their eyes, and to turn them from dark- 
ness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God.”—ActTs xxvi : 18. 


“Mysticism has its pitfalls and its limita- 
tions, but this much is sound and true, that 
the way to know God is to have inner heart’s 
experience of Him, like the experience of the 


Son.”—RuFus M. Jonss; “The Inner Life.” 


“THAT radiance of the Kingdom, that high noon 
Of Life and Love, which shining inwardly, 
Hath never any night.” 


—Sir EpwIn ARNOLD, 
“The Light of the World.” 


101 


“Tt 1s no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth 
in me.”—GALATIANS ii : 20. 


“There are three ways the primitive Quak- 
ers used the term, “Inner Light;’—As a Di- 
vine Life resident in the soul ;—as a source of 
guidance, and illumination; and as a ground 
of spiritual certitude.’ — Rurus M. Jongs; 
“The Social Law in the Spiritual World.” 


“If any sincere Christian casts himself with 
his whole will upon the Divine Presence which 
dwells within him, he shall be kept safe unto 
the end.”—-CarDINAL HENRY E. MANNING. 


“LEANING on Him, make with reverent meekness 
His own, thy will; 
And with strength from Him, shall thy utter weak- 
‘ ness 
Life’s task tulfill.” 
Wuirtier: “My Soul and I.” 


102 


“Behold; to obey is better than sacrifice.’—I SAM- 
UEL xv : 22, 


“Obey * * and thy soul shall live.”—JEREMIAH 
Xxxviii : 20. 


“And after the earthquake, a fire; but the Lord 


was not in the fire; and after the fire, a still, small 
voice.”—I KINGS xix : 12. 


“Tf any man will do his will, he shall know of 
the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak of myself.’—JouHN vii : 17.- 


“We need only obey. There is guidance 
for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall 
hear the right word.” EMERSON. 


“Aye, obeys. ‘That is where our faith 
is weak. “That is where we need the potency 
of the Gospel. We know better than we do.” 
—JOHN WILHELM ROWNTREE. 


103 


“Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus 
Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”—II Cor- 
INTHIANS xiii : 5. 


“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither 
shall I flee from thy presence?”—PSALM cxxxix : 7. 


“How oft a gleam of glory sent 

Straight through the deepest, darkest night, 
Has filled the soul with heavenly light,— 
With holy peace and sweet content.” 


ANON. 


“The Germans have a beautiful equivalent 
for the English expression “ a still, small 
voice.’ ‘They call it “ein kleines Fluestern” ; 
—A Gentle Whispering.—ANON. 


“T wiLL hear what the Lord God may say in me. 

Blest are the ears that catch the throbbing whisper 
of the Lord, 

And turn not to the buzzings of the passing world; 

That listen not to voices from without, 

But to the Truth that teaches from within.” 


—Tuomas A. KeEmpPIs. 


104 


“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art 
with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.” 
—PSALM xxiii : 4. 


“And there shall be night no more; and they need 
no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord 
God shall give them light, and they shall reign for- 
ever and ever.’—REVELATION xxii : 5. 


“Peace, let it be! for I loved him 
and will love him forever; 
The dead are not dead, but alive!” 


—TENNYSON; “Vastness.” 


“Q Light that followest all my way,— 
I yield my flickering torch to Thee; 

My heart restores its borrowed ray, 
That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day 
May brighter, farier be!” 


GEORGE MATHESON. 


“ArT builds on sand;—the works of pride 
And human passion change and fall; 

But that which shares the life of God 
With Him surviveth all!” 


Wuirtier: “Wordsworth.” 


105 


The following are a few quotations refer- 
ring to light,—beautiful and helpful in them- 
selves, although not directly referring to the 
Light of the Holy Spirit ;— 


“Who coverest Thyself with light, as with a gar- 
ment.’’—PSALM civ : 2. 


“The most beautiful thing in all God’s uni- 
verse is light,—for it is not only beautiful in 
itself, but it reveals all other beauties to us.” 
—SPINOZA. 


“'ToucHED by a light that hath no name,— 
A glory never sung,— 

Aloft on sky and mountain wall 

Are God’s great pictures hung.” 


WHITTIER. 


“That which befits us, embosomed in won- 
der and beauty as we are, is cheerfulness and 
courage, and the endeavor to realize our as- 
pirations. Shall not the heart that has re- 
ceived so much, trust the Power by which it 
lives ?’—EMERSON. 


106 


“Tue light of larger love than shines for earth 
Made beautiful her eyes.” 
Sir Epwin ARNOLD: “The Light of the World.” 


Compare the above with the following from Ten- 
nyson’s “Idyls of the King.” 


“BEYOND my knowing of them, beautiful; 
Beyond all knowing of them, wonderful ; 
Beautiful in the light of holiness.” 

TENNYSON. 


“Titi darkness fled again 
And brought back Dawn, and that diviner Light 
Shed from Him.” 
Sir Epwin ARNOLD. 


“THERE is a light in yonder sky,— 
A light not seen by human eye; 
But bright and clear to inward sense 
It shines,—the Star of Providence!” 
ANON. 


107 


ADDENDA. 


ADDENDA. 


ADDENDA. 


ADDENDA. 


ADDENDA. 


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